The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has directed power distribution companies to conclude the migration of Standard Transfer Specification Meters for all their customers to prevent service disruption.
The commission gave the directive during the Q4 Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry Stakeholders Meeting, according to a post on its official X handle on Tuesday.
It stressed that Discos that do not comply with this directive will incur a daily penalty of an undisclosed amount for unmigrated meters by January 2025
The post read, “NERC has directed Discos to rapidly conclude the migration of STS-Meters for all their customers to prevent disruption of service.
“During the Q4 NESI Stakeholders Meeting, the commission warned that daily penalties would be imposed for each meter not migrated effective from 1st January 2025.”
The statement further restated the responsibility of the Discos to replace all obsolete/faulty meters within their franchise without charge.
“The commission further emphasised the responsibility of the Discos to replace all obsolete/faulty meters within their franchise. Under the provisions of the Customer Protection Regulation 2023, the commission noted that Discos are neither allowed to charge customers for the replacement of obsolete/faulty meters nor transfer customers to estimated billing,” the statement concluded.
Last month, The PUNCH reported that about three million electricity customers may be forced into estimated billing or outright darkness due to their failure to upgrade their prepaid meters.
This is because a consumer group estimated that half of the 5,993,340 metered customers would be caught in the web of the government policy.
Recall that distribution companies in Lagos told their consumers that all Unistar meters would be phased out by November 14 2024 due to Token Identifier rollover.
Customers using Unistar meters were asked to pay for the replacement of their meters, sparking outrage from affected customers.
The Unistar meter producers denied claims that their meters are outdated. They stated that their meters utilising the card meter technology are fully upgradeable and compatible with the STS meter technology.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission also intervened, urging the DisCos to halt their replacement of Unistar prepaid meters.
